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Analysis: Will final debate break voters' stalemate?

This time, President Obama wanted a fight. Mitt Romney was determined not to give him one. At the third and final presidential debate — in battleground Florida, and focused on foreign policy — Obama accused

Analysis: Will final debate break voters' stalemate?

The scene -- Standing at podiums. Romney on the attack; Obama seemed disengaged

The topics -- Domestic policy, including taxes, the federal budget deficit, their records

Key moment -- Romney on the economy: "The president has a view very similar to the view he
had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing
more, regulating more -- if you will, trickle-down government -- would work.
That's not the right answer for America."

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- This time, President Obama wanted a fight. Mitt Romney was determined not to give him one.

At the third and final presidential debate — in battleground Florida, and focused on foreign policy — Obama accused his Republican rival of espousing "wrong" and dangerous policies that would risk new wars, and he ridiculed his worldview and his demands for a bigger Navy as outdated.

"We have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets," Obama said to laughter, adding: "This is not a game of Battleship."

If the president wanted to shake things up, though, his opponent was trying to keep things calm. The finger-pointing Romney from the first two debates was gone. Instead, seated across from Obama at a table, the former Massachusetts governor was more measured and less confrontational. He opened by congratulating the president for the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, though he followed that brief praise by repeatedly questioning the strength of his leadership.

"I look around the world — I don't see our influence growing around the world," Romney said. "I see our influence receding." He blasted Obama for tensions with Israel and questioned the effectiveness of his policies toward Iran. But his tone seemed to be one more of regret than anger, and on several fronts he said he agreed with the administration.

That prompted Obama to accuse him of "trying to airbrush history" by adopting more moderate policies on global topics than he espoused in the past.

The first two debates enabled Romney to achieve what millions of dollars in TV ads and the better part of a year of campaigning had failed to do: to persuade voters in the middle to see him as a plausible president, worthy of a second look. He seemed determined to capitalize on that opportunity by looking, well, presidential in the third one, even at the risk of letting some of Obama's caustic jibes go unanswered.

Romney's success in getting a second chance to make a first impression doesn't mean he'll win the election, but his credible performances shifted a close campaign that had been tilting in Obama's favor. The president went into the first debate with a 4-percentage-point lead among registered voters in Gallup's daily poll. He went into the second locked in a tie. And he headed into the third trailing by 1 point among registered voters and 6 among likely voters.

Could Romney, already favored over Obama on managing the economy, close the advantage the president has had in handling foreign policy?

The 90 minutes on stage at Lynn University offered his best opportunity to do that — and Obama's best chance to prevent it from happening.

"Every time you have offered an opinion, you've been wrong," the president told Romney, noting that he supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and questioned the wisdom of a full-throated search for bin Laden. Recalling Romney's comment that Russia was the nation's top geopolitical foe, the president said mockingly: "The 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

"Attacking me is not an agenda," Romney replied. "Attacking me is not talking about the challenges we're going to face in the Middle East."

Four years ago, the debates between Obama and Republican John McCain confirmed the outlines of a race in which broad dissatisfaction with George W. Bush's presidency and a cascading economic crisis set the stage for a decisive Democratic takeover of the White House.

This year, the debates have changed the landscape. They gave Romney a chance before his biggest audiences ever to present himself as a man with an economic plan and to pivot to more moderate rhetoric on issues from immigration to contraception. That picture was at odds with the one the Obama camp had painted for months of a plutocrat who didn't know and didn't care about the lives of most Americans.

"The main thrust and in some ways the sole thrust of the Obama campaign from May through September was to render Mitt Romney unacceptable as an alternative to Barack Obama," says William Galston of the Brookings Institution, a White House adviser to President Clinton and veteran Democratic strategist. "In my judgment, the first debate blew up that strategy beyond repair. ... He's not going to be able to convince people that Romney is unthinkable, unacceptable, unfit to occupy the Oval Office."

The intended topics Monday weren't the ones Americans say matter most — that is, jobs, the economy and the federal budget deficit. On the agenda instead were the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear program in Iran, the terrorist threats from the Middle East, the economic competition from China, the U.S. role in the world.

When asked what America's role is in the world, President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney have different ideas.

The underlying issue as well, and the larger point being pressed by both contenders, was that of leadership in the Oval Office. Romney portrayed Obama as weak and reactive. Obama portrayed Romney as feckless and opportunistic.

Still, Romney already had scored gains in being seen as a potential commander in chief. After the first debate, a nationwide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found Obama preferred over Romney by a single point, 48%-47%, in handling international issues. In August, the president's lead on foreign policy had been in double digits, 52%-42%.

In the debate, both men managed to turn the topic back to issues closer to home, from taxes and jobs to education. Both of them delivered closing statements that focused not on foreign policy but on the economy — and the election, now just 15 days away.

President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney conclude the third and final presidential debate of the 2012 election season -- just two weeks before voters head to the polls Nov. 6. (Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama and moderator Bob Schieffer listen as Mitt Romney speaks. Romney said the United States' global role is greater than it was four years ago, but Pew research shows global attitudes about the U.S. have declined over the past few years. (Photo: Michael Reynolds, AP)

President Obama said Mitt Romney now favors bilateral talks with Iran, a reversal of his previous stance, but the AP reported that Romney refused to answer when asked recently whether he supported one-on-one talks. (Photo: Win McNamee, AP)

President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney greet each other before the start of the election season's final debate, moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS. (Photo: Joe Raedle. Getty Images)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended his pledge to brand China a currency manipulator on "Day 1" of his presidency, saying it will not start a trade war. Romney says the U.S. can work with China, but can't "roll over" for it. (Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama says his administration has taken China to the World Trade Organization repeatedly over unfair practices and cites cases affecting Ohio, which is a key state in the election. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Mitt Romney says the U.S. has to stay involved with Pakistan for a basic reason: They have nuclear weapons. He says the U.S. doesn't want Pakistan to fall into the hands of terrorists. "We're going to have to work with the people of Pakistan," Romney says. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

Harvard University students and professors cheer while dancing with cutouts of President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney before watching the third presidential debate at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass. (Photo: Charles Krupa,, AP)

President Obama speaks during the third presidential debate in Boca Raton, Fla. The focus of the debate was supposed to be foreign policy, but the Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney sparred over domestic issues as well. (Photo: David Goldman, AP)

President Obama debates Mitt Romney as moderator Bob Schieffer looks on. During the debate, Obama said the unemployment rate for veterans is below the national jobless rate of 7.8%. The unemployment rate for veterans in September was 6.7%, but unemployment for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans was 9.7%.
(Photo: Marc Serota, Getty Images)

Moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS speaks prior to the debate between President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Boca Raton, Fla. The focus for the final presidential debate before Election Day is foreign policy. (Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his wife, Ann, and family members await in a holding room prior to the start of the third presidential debate against at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND, AFP/Getty Images)

Two statuettes depicting President Obama and GOP rival Mitt Romney are backdropped by the Stars and Stripes in a shop in Naples, Italy, on Oct. 22, hours ahead of their third and final presidential debate of the 2012 election season. (Photo: Salvatore Laporta, AP)

This official White House photo shows President Obama as he reads briefing material while meeting with advisers inside his cabin at Camp David, Md., on Oct. 21. (Photo: Pete Souza, White House via AFP/Getty Images)